Tyrants everywhere dread the time when the people no longer fear them. This is so because they rule by instilling fear in the people’s minds. The army generals who rule Myanmar ruthlessly have, therefore, reasons to be upset with the protests by Buddhist monks and nuns. It has never been a secret that Yangon’s military rulers are hated by almost all sections of the people. Significantly, the current protests show that the people are not afraid to defy the junta’s terror. That the agitation this time is led by prayer-chanting members of a religious order gives it a rare moral force. But the monks and nuns have only held the mirror up to the national outrage against the generals’ illegitimate rule. There is much more than political symbolism in their show of solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi. She has long been the most powerful symbol of the people’s spirit of freedom and their hope of a democratic future. Nothing captures the Myanmarese tragedy more forcefully than her life in jail or in house arrest for the past twelve years.

However, it may be naïve to expect the generals to mend their brutal ways. They responded to the last major anti-government upsurge in 1988 by killing several thousand pro-democracy agitators and by nullifying the huge mandate won by Ms Suu Kyi in the elections that year. But tin-pot dictators like Than Shwe cannot escape their moments of crisis. The so-called “Senior General” may help the monks’ rebellion spread to other sections of the people if he uses violence in order to tackle it. At the same time, he cannot negotiate peace with the monks without addressing the larger issue of democracy and freedom in the country. Also, what the monks have begun at home seem to be catching the world’s attention. If Yangon’s generals have succeeded all these years in detaining Ms Suu Kyi and denying the people their freedom, that is primarily because of the free world’s dubious response to the problem. The monks’ prayers should be a call to action.